Kiev (Part 2)
We had a driver (from the company where we got the apartment) pick us up at 3 am and drive us to Borispil Airport. There was no traffic at that time of morning and it was snowing. We went into the Terminal building and waited to see which desks would we have to use to check-in for our flight to Amsterdam. We had to wait an hour before the sign told us the desk number. We went there, checked our bags through to the US and then went through Customs and then Immigration. Again, the man at Immigration didn’t say anything to any of us and it was fairly quick. We had a breakfast of sandwiches at an Irish Bar (the only place open) and then bought some souvenirs at the Duty Free. We had to go through extra security to go to our gate and then take a bus to the plane.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane was worse than when we took it to Kiev. I told the stewardess 3 times that the seat my mom was in was too small - it was made for a child. She basically ignored me and then when we started to taxi to the runway I hit the call-button and several minutes later she came and told me of a free seat (by a window) in the back. I got up and walked to it where another stewardess started yelling at me for standing up. I told her that the other stewardess had told me to move and to stop yelling at me. There were two guys sitting in the seats and one got up to let me sit in the middle - not the window like I was told. So I spent the next 2 1/2 hours sitting between to very smelly Ukrainians in a very small seat. I decided to just sleep the whole time and got woken up by 5 different people for breakfast and drinks - no matter how many times I told them I just wanted to sleep - they didn’t seem to understand why anyone would not want to eat their food - which smelled gross.
We made it to Amsterdam where we could relax and have all the comforts of home again. We ate a real breakfast and got on the Internet. We tried to upgrade our seats to first-class but it was too expensive as KLM charges a penalty to do it. We did some shopping at the airport and then went to the gate. We had to go through extra security at the gate and again the Dutch security were very nice.The flight back was just as nice as the flight to Europe. The only difference was this time it was less crowded. The food wasn’t so good, but the flight attendents made up for it (even when I dropped my drink on me and they gave me another one.)
When we landed in the US we had to wait for the “people mover” to take us to Immigration. We got our bags and then had to wait forever at customs. There were only 2 lines open and about 3 International planes arriving at the same time. I did notice that all the Muslim people where being sent for “secondary screening.” I only hope that the policy is followed when they are going through security before the flight. We then got on a bus to go to the economy parking and our car. We got stuck in rush hour traffic and hours later we made it back home (but stopped at a Mexican Restaurant first to have dinner.)
Our dogs were very excited to see us and there was lots of mail to go through. We had been travelling for around 24 hours and I was glad to be home. All in all the trip to Kiev was a good one (minus the Northwest and Ukraine International Airlines which I would never reccomend ever taking.)